Does TV Cause ADHD? (Lonsberry)

Email ^ | April 6, 2004 | Bob Lonsberry

[jigsaw]

That’s the serious question raised by a new study that shows a correlation between the amount of time infants and toddlers spend in front of a television set and subsequent difficulties with concentration, impulsiveness and restlessness.

Let me say it for you: Holy crap.

In a country where half the people wearing diapers watch “Finding Nemo” two or three times a day, this could be big trouble. And it could have huge consequences.

And it could leave a generation of parents asking, “What have I done?”

The study, put out by the American Academy of Pediatrics, doesn’t say that TV causes ADHD. It doesn’t say it causes anything. But it scares the daylights out of me.

For the first time, I think that there might be something to this attention deficit nonsense. And, for the first time, I think there’s a plausible explanation for where it comes from.

For the first time, if this study means anything, I can get a sense of the how large this epidemic might actually be.

And, like I said, it scares the daylights out of me.

Simply put, the more TV a child averages per day before its fourth birthday the more likely it is to have, once it gets to be 7, symptoms most of us associate with hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder.

It doesn’t matter what the children watch, it doesn’t matter who watches it with them, it only matters that they’re watching TV. It can be Big Bird or porn, it’s all the same. The theory is that it’s something to do with the wiring of the brain. Watching dancing electric pictures, at the pacing and intensity of television, teaches the brain to adapt itself to a certain type of world.

The problem is, nobody lives in that world.

Life isn’t edited or paced like television. And when the real world tries to process through a brain that’s adapted to television, things don’t quite click. Kids end up troubled.

Or at least they can.

For each hour of average television watched, the incidence of troubling behavior goes up 10 percent.

So I guess it’s a matter of how much you’re willing to gamble with your child’s future.

Personally, if I ever have any more children, they’re not going to know what the TV is for the first few years of their lives. It’s just not worth the risk, the way I look at it.

And I’m not willing to abdicate my parental responsibilities and opportunities to an idiot box.

On average, an American baby is watching 2.2 hours of television a day on its first birthday. By the time the youngster is 2, that’s risen to 3.6 hours a day. Some babies and toddlers, however, are propped in front of the television more than 12 hours a day.

That’s no good.

But the science isn’t sure whether that’s a cause or a coincidence. There is a relationship, but TV may not be the cause, it may simply be another symptom.

How about this: The more you put your child in front of a TV, the worse a parent you are. And the worse a parent you are, the more likely your child is to be screwed up.

Or, maybe this: Screwed up parents bear screwed up babies, which produces the problems, and the TV may merely be the screwed up parents pacifying themselves with the tube.

Who knows for sure. But no matter what the connection is, it’s a bad one.

And it’s one we can do something about. We can turn off the TV. We can get our babies out from in front of the electronic babysitter. We can raise our children, instead of turning it over to the Disney animators.

The common practice of showing a video to children over and over and over, and of allowing them to “ask for” movies and videos is no good. At best, it trains young Americans to be fat, lazy oafs unable to entertain themselves. At worst, as this study suggests, it may permanently handicap them.

It may be the Ritalin connection.

And, if you think about it, it is unconscionable for children this young to become hooked on TV. It is an abdication of parenting. When a baby opens its eyes, it should see its mother’s face, not a cathode ray tube. The natural development of the human mind, its stimulation and instruction, is best when built upon interactions with a loving mother and father and siblings. Those associations build the connections and form the habits and expectations of a happy and healthy life.

Television is a blessing and a curse, one when it is used right and the other when it is used wrong.

And in America, with young children, we use television wrong.

Which may explain the ADHD plague.

- by Bob Lonsberry © 2004

[jigsaw]

For those Freepers dealing with ADHD issues.

[Frank_Discussion]

I kinda lost interest about halfway through the article...

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[jigsaw]

LOL -- you're bad! :-)

[Gerasimov]

Normally this "TV made me do it" crap doesn't hold much water with me. But there seems to be a pretty compelling argument here. The instinctive, animal, part of the brain is being stimulated during television watching while the parts of the brain used for higher computing and logic is taking a nap. All this while the child is at an age where those neural pathways are being formed.

Makes sense to me...

[thoughtomator]

My reaction to this article: "No Sh*t, Sherlock!"

All that's left is the class-action lawsuit.

[Johnny Gage]

ADHD ping.

[don'tbedenied]

I don't think the author knows the difference between ADD and ADHD. The author has real dificulties with cause and effect. This reads as if he hopes there's a connection because he hates TV.
If there is a study that proves one causes the other, let's see it. If not go find some other form of popular culture to complain about, I'm sure he can speculate that Britney Spears is popular and many people get cancer. Could be connected.

[Johnny Gage]

yes. And if you look at how kids TV programs are designed, the segments are usually short, interspersed with commercials which are 15-30 seconds of even more "fast paced" bits.

It's no surprise that kids are having problems concentrating for any amount of time.

[Fury]

Good to see an article from Lonsberry posted. Ever since he was tossed from WHAM AM in Rochester, I've not listened to his replacement.

[fml]

And in America, with young children, we use television wrong.

It's true. Back in the day, you had to get up to change the station making it both interactive and excerice.

[thoughtomator]

Back in the day, the only channel worth watching was MTV, which meant no channel-changing ;-)

[Frank_Discussion]

"you're bad!"

Heh. With FR, I'm nationwide.

[lilylangtree]

ADD and hyperactivity disorder is being overused and children are being overmedicated. Children are naturally curious and abound with energy. Sure there are children who actually may have the disorder. However, the average child needs a place to work out their energies in a productive way not overmedicate. If watching tv is used constructively, it doesn't hurt the child and doesn't cause this disorder.

[rocky88]

Now that I'm home with my 6 1/2 month old, the TV is mainly off. I don't even want it on as "background noise" - that's what the radio and CD's are for. He loves music now! Also, my FIL bought me all the "Baby Einstein" DVD's for Christmas, and I'll put it on maybe every day, or every other day for baby. They last about a half-hour, are very slow-paced with lots of bright colors and puppets and faces of other children with classical music playing throughout. My little one is just riveted to them. Some of them are Baby Mozart, Baby Bach, Baby Shakespeare (this includes recitation of sonnets which is really nice) and we also have Baby Beethoven, which I haven't opened yet.

Even though they are now owned by Disney (and I am fervently anti-Disney) I would highly recommend them to any parent with an infant. They are handy when you have to make dinner and it's not naptime!

In addition, I think the ADHD/ADD connection to TV has some merit to it. Today's cartoons especially are so fast-moving that I'm sure many young children are experiencing a stimulatory overload for hours on end. That's why when it comes to cartoons, we will allow the good stuff like Warner Bros. Bugs Bunny and pals.. I still think Daffy Duck is funnier than anything else out there!

[M1Tanker]

Nationwide?!? Ouwwww...not obscure ZZ Top Flashbacks!!! Make it stop!! </sarcasm>

Well, this does make the "turn off the TV and go play outside" philosphy my parents had make sense. It does, in a way, explain why there was no ADHD before the 1980s. Though, the lack of sue-happy lawyers and "medicate everyone" 'doctors' we had before then may be part of it too....

So, getting kids away from TV overload and going outside and playing not only keeps them thinner and helps with coordination/social skills/maturing, it also *may* reduce the cases of ADHD..... We can't prove this, but hey, they don't call TV the "Boob-Tube" for nothing!

[Esther Ruth]

Excellent book to read on the subject - Endangered Minds, Why Children Don't Think and What We Can Do about It, by Jane M. Healy, Phd., 1990
I know it 14 years old, but still very timely, talks about brain development.

[petitfour]

Talk about junk science. I have seven children. They have all been exposed to television as infants. The oldest child has a classic case of ADD in a female, according to a recent diagnosis by a medical professional. She is also extremely gifted. Should I attribute that to Disney videos???????? Our second child is also very gifted, but she can survive in the world without any special accommodations for her quirks because she is a hard worker. I think she would qualify as ADD if I filled out the questionnaires that are used for diagnosing such. (I believe that there is no adequate measuring device for such.) Our third child has been diagnosed as ADD. And I concur that he is. Our fourth child is the opposite of the third, and he watches more television than the third. Our fifth, sixth, and seventh children watch movies and the occasional PBS show for children. I do not see an ADD diagnosis for any of them in the future. My husband is definitely ADD. Always has been. I don't think you could blame television for that. His family was poor, and they lived in a rural setting with no access to cable television. He often listened to the radio, and he did not care what the program was. He just preferred having the background noise.

In other words, my experience is that time in front of the television has no bearing on whether someone is ADD/ADHD or not.

A good book on the subject of ADD folks is Right Brained Children in a Left Brained World. It makes a pretty good argument for children who have problems in school and are labelled ADD. What those children really need more than drugs (though some do need medication) is educators who understand how right brained children think. They would see amazing results by teaching those children in nontraditional ways. I have used the methods recommended in the book on my son, and I have seen amazing results.

[Petronski]

I kinda lost interest about halfway through the article...

Me too. My show's on.

[Utah Binger]

Certifiable lightweight, both on the radio and now here.